Our fridge had that forlorn, empty look these past few days. You know -- when you mostly shop once per month, and it's now mid-month and time to pick up more milk and fresh produce. I actually thought I had bought all of the milk we'd need for the month, but we breezed through those 7 gallons in less than 3 weeks. In addition, despite keeping a fruit and vegetable garden, we like to have a few extra produce items that I don't grow or won't be ready for a while yet.
One of my daughters was home for the afternoon and she wanted to spend some time with me, so we packed up our lunches to-go and made an outing of scouring the local produce and ethnic markets. These markets don't advertise online the way that traditional stores do. So to know the prices, you have to go out and see first-hand. I'm fortunate as far as ethnic markets go. Our area is generously sprinkled with them. I like to check them all out at least once per summer. Then I have a reference point for lowest possible price on many of our produce items. We stopped at 6 markets, breaking for lunch mid-way, finding a park with picnic tables to enjoy an alfresco lunch. One market which has a good reputation for low prices didn't actually have anything that I wanted today. I keep that thought in the back of my mind -- just because I go into a shop or market does not mean that I am obligated to buy anything.
For $8.87 we bought 2 gallons of milk, 1 green pepper, almost 2 pounds of red grapes, a head of cabbage, 3 1/2 lbs of bananas, and 2 cucumbers. The red grapes were a real steal at 49 cents/lb. There were a few soft or moldy grapes at the bottom of the bags, but I knew that I could salvage the majority of the grapes with a wash and sort right after getting home. Upon close inspection, I ended up throwing out about 20 grapes from the entire bag, so I think we did quite well. We used half of the bag for tonight's dinner and the rest are in the fridge for tomorrow and Saturday. The cabbage was 10 cents less per pound (at 39 cents/ lb) than my other lowest price cabbage spot. Some great deals and we're now topped off to get through the last couple of weeks of July.
Bargain-hunting is my idea of a fun day. When I spy a mark-down rack, my eyes light up, conversation trails off, and I am completely distracted at the prospect of a deal to be found. Paired with time spent with one of my kids, and I'd say I had the perfect afternoon.
